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Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins Recipe with Ham and Cheddar

These Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar are a biscuit + omelet combination!

(Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar was updated December 2009 and added to Recipe Favorites. When I wrote this post I was a busy teacher/food blogger who had to plan ahead for breakfast. Now that I'm "retired" I'm finding it's just as important to have quick breakfasts on hand. I'm spotlighting this post for anyone who's busy with the holiday rush but wants to keep the breakfast habit.)

Okay, some of you know it and others might have guessed, but I'm one of those insanely busy people who rarely sits down for a proper breakfast, certainly not on the week days. That's why in my fridge, you'll see breakfast muffins like this in a plastic container, waiting to be heated up in the morning. This is the second version I've made of this cottage cheese and egg breakfast muffin, made with almond meal, parmesan, and just the tiniest bit of flour to create a muffins that's quite different in texture than the phase one Egg Muffins I also like. Imagine a biscuit married an omelet and they had a child, but the child got a few more omelet genes than biscuit genes; that's what these muffins are like.

If you're someone who sits at the table and has a relaxed breakfast I do envy you, and you might picture your breakfast muffins more like this. However you're imagining they might fit into your life, these breakfast muffins are just delicious.

Spray silicone muffin cups with non-stick spray or olive oil, or use foil muffin cups. (I would spray those too.) Divide batter between six muffin cups. Bake muffins 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned on top and set. (If you're going to be microwaving, I would bake about 25 minutes, for eating immediately I would use closer to 30 minutes.)

Muffins can be refrigerated and reheated in microwave. Be careful not to microwave too long or they will get tough. (Still have not tried freezing them, I eat them too fast!)

Be sure to use white whole wheat flour for the South Beach Diet, not white flour. With low fat cottage cheese and low fat cheddar, this would be a good choice for phase 2 or 3 of the South Beach Diet. Even with lowfat cheese, the almond meal makes these muffins relatively high in fat, so be aware of your other food choices that day. It would be good to use turkey ham for South Beach friendliness, or choose a ham that's lean.

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Kalyn, I didn't have a chance to check your blog yesterday, and only did it while half-way through writing today's blog post - yes, about cottage cheese muffins:) Talk about great minds thinking alike:)I love your version with ham - excellent idea!!

I'm a grab-and-go breakfast person, even though I work at home! These muffins look perfect for someone who doesn't want to devote a lot of thought to breakfast, but who wants something nutritious and delicious.

Hi everyone,Happy to hear that people like the sound of these because I'm loving this recipe. Next I'm thinking a vegetarian version is in order. Pille, must go check out your muffins.

Gretchen, Let me know if you try it. The cottage cheese does kind of melt into the muffins so I'm thinking it would work.

Ellie, I think you could use whole wheat flour, but I'm not a baker so I don't know much about the properties of different flours. White whole wheat can usually be used interchangeably with white flour in most recipes so you might use just white flour if you're not avoiding it.

r.d. One reason I like South Beach is not having to count carbs, so I'm not an expert at it. There are quite a few ingredients here with minimal carbs, but the cottage cheese, flour, and almond meal do have carbs. I'm coming up with 6-7 carbs per muffin, depending on the type of cottage cheese you use. (My cc has 5 carbs per 1/2 cup.) These are pretty nutritionally dense, so one is enough for me for breakfast, but if you're a hearty eater you might want two.

Great idea Kalyn. GH and I drink breakfast standing up...a low carb breakfast shake made with ice water, frozen strawberries and banana, ground flax seed, and soy protein mix. It's high in protein and fiber. It stays with us all morning. But soon I'll be out of strawberries and I'll try this. Thanks.

To those who have inquired about a substitute for cottage cheese, I think any type of crumbly, dry, low-fat cheese would work. Ricotta is one thing that comes to mind as a substitute. I'm not that familiar with cheese in other parts of the world, but the cottage cheese is melted into the muffins and adds moistness.

I have used this very similar recipe from Sara Moulton for years now. It only uses 1/4 cup of flour, and if I don't make it full size for dinner, I make it in silicone muffin cups for breakfasts and then freeze them. It is infinitely variable: different cheeses, add some meat if you like, various onions or leeks, etc.

It's always nice to add another recipe to the quick breakfast file! Thanks!

Pegasus, thanks for sharing. What makes these muffins different from Sara Moulton's and also my previous versions of Egg Muffins is the almond meal. It adds a chewy texture that I really like. Sara's recipe does sound good but I'd have to change it a bit to make it South Beach friendly.

Kalyn, I can't remember if I left a comment on your first cottage cheese egg muffin post, but I tried both of these variations -- as well as the original sun-dried tomatoes one from 101 Cookbooks -- to great success. I am completely in love with these muffins. So yummy, healthy, convenient! May I suggest one more variation -- cilantro! My DH suggested throwing in some that we had left over, and it was delicious! I'm sure you'll agree. :-)

Oh, and a comment about subbing cottage cheese: I ran out of cottage cheese in the middle of making these, and used reduced fat sour cream in place of about 1/3 of the cottage cheese called for. It worked great and didn't make the muffins taste or feel any different than when I made them before with the full amount of cottage cheese. However, I don't know if it would be as successful if you replaced 100% of it with sour cream.

Also, I made both versions with regular whole wheat flour (not white whole wheat) and they came out great.

I just wanted to thank you for the recipe. I make these for my fiance on weekends in place of the usual junk he'd rather be eating (bacon, toast with butter...etc.) and he absolutely LOVES them. He always asks for extra to take to work during the week :)

I made these today and since my man person needs low carb and low fat (arrggh!) I used soy flour instead of almond flour. I also used turkey pastrami rather than ham and put a little less cheese in them. All in all they turned out okay but didn't have much flavor and mine aren't nearly as pretty as yours! Mine are misshapen and kind of leaning. lol I think I'll try them again with the almond flour and see if those taste better. Methinks they will! Thanks for sharing this, though. I heart your blog!

CookinsForMe, I do think soy flour is much less dense than almond flour, so it would make quite a difference. You could add more egg to replace some of the almond flour, or just make regular Egg Muffins without any flour if you want less fat.

Thanks for the input! I'm going to try them again with the almond and see if that goes better and I'll try the other egg muffins too. I've made a similar dish a few times and it's gone over well with him but yours just look better so I'll try your recipes. :)

These sound great! I just found your site and am enjoying seeing some gluten and sugar free cookies! I did the 6 week body makeover, which doesn't do gluten or sugar and am glad I can find some yummy cookies while keeping the weight off!

Daryl, I've never tried making this without almond so I don't know what would happen. It is finely ground almonds, and I think it's pretty readily available, maybe in the health foods section of a large grocery store, and certainly at a place like Whole Foods you can find it.

Sandie, it is a great idea, but credit goes to Rose Elliot who came up with the original recipes. I love the combination of cottage cheese and almond meal in these muffins, they're one of my favorite breakfasts!

These are absolutely delicious. So light and fluffy and savory! I ground up my own almonds to make the almond meal because I can't be bothered to drive 20 minutes to my local health food store, lol. I also didn't feel like ham this morning so I added some sun dried tomatoes. Seriously amazing.

I have to tell your I found your recipe a few months ago and have been making it every week or two since. I even made them in a mini muffin tin and served them as appetizers. I've made many variations but my favorite is turkey and swiss cheese. My boyfriend, who is the pickiest eater I have ever met, gobbles them up. THank you! These are seriously good!

I can't put the newest comments on the top. I also can't force people who have tried the recipe to comment, but I guarantee I always publish those kinds of comments and would love to get more.

Now to your question, flax seed meal is nothing like almond meal and won't work as a substitute. Almond meal is finely ground almonds. You can probably grind your own, or it's sold near health foods in most grocery stores.

Rick if you look under Frequently Asked Questions in the row of tabs at the top, there is a link for Calorie Count where you can enter the recipe and number of servings and it will calculate the nutritional information for you.

Made these yummy egg muffins GF by using 1/4 C. of GF flour blend and they came out great. Would like to experiment with some healthier GF options, but will have to think about it a bit. Be careful not to add more salt than Kalyn has wisely suggested. I though it sounded a little light on the salt for my taste, but wasn't thinking about the ham or salt in the cheese and mine were a little over the top.

I've made this recipe twice now, and I absolutely love it!! I love breakfasts that I can make once, then reheat throughout the week! I've made just slight variations, and I'll write them in case anyone's curious.

1- I've used almond flour and almond meal (the first time I could only find the flour, then I found the meal at Trader Joe's and used that), and both worked. I'd say they're interchangeable here! I did use 1/2 cup instead of 2/3.

2- I skipped the Parmesan and it turned out fine (my Parmesan had gone bad, but it was just as delicious with only cheddar!).

3- As far as baking info, I made this using my jumbo silicone muffin pan (lightly greased with butter), and it was perfect. Each muffin uses 6 tbsp of egg mixture (which is 2 scoops of my largest cookie scoop). I bake them for 27 minutes, and reheat them (from cold) for 30 seconds.

Thank you for sharing this great recipe! I'll make this again & again! :)

Hey! I love these muffins and have been making them over the past 2 months. My husband had a couple this morning and accidentally left them out on the counter for a couple hours, are the rest still okay to eat or should I toss them? Thanks!

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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